Jamie Borthwick on Jay's reaction to Nadine's baby bombshell in EastEnders

The timing of their encounter was terrible, with Jay having first connected with Nadine through how similar she looks to his late wife Lola Pearce-Brown (Danielle Harold).

Nadine is a sex worker who offered Jay drugs to help him cope with his grief, but when his loved ones learned of the downward spiral this led to, Nadine walked away and Jay got his life back on track.

Next week, Nadine tells Jay that they are expecting a baby girl. He later tries to get Nadine and his stepdaughter Lexi Pearce (Isabella Brown) to bond, but Nadine's situation causes the beginnings of a rift between Jay and Lexi.

Speaking to RadioTimes.com and other press, Borthwick was asked how Jay is feeling in the wake of Nadine's news. "He steps up to the responsibility that he doesn't want."

Does Jay truly believe that he's the father of this baby? It seems so!

"We all know Jay, he's a good man, as Perry Fenwick calls him, he's a good man. So he does certainly live up to the responsibility - I think he's sucked into this dream, he buys into it.

"He absolutely has no reason to not believe, so yeah, he's all for it, and he steps up when called upon because he is a good man."

While Jay is committed to doing the right thing, his head is in a bit of a spin, as alongside Honey Mitchell (Emma Barton), Jay is due to run the London Marathon in memory of Lola. But how have recent events affected Jay's preparation for the event?

"He's a bit all over the place, really," reveals the actor. "At this particular moment on-screen, the other little blondie's about to walk back in, the old little Lola lookalike, she's about to walk back in.

"So it's little bit all over the place at the moment, but the marathon has kind of taken a backseat with all this, what's going on with Nadine's return and the Oppenheimer bomb that she drops."

Nadine is feeling rather guilty when she realises just how seriously Jay is taking her condition, so it remains to be seen whether all is as it seems.

Asked what it's like to work with returning co-star Phoenix, Borthwick joked: "Annoying, so annoying, she drives me mad! D'you know what, from her first spell, she's never left. I've seen her probably three times a week since she's gone!"

Jokes aside, the actor was full of praise for the actress, who has fast become a beloved member of the cast. "We're great, great, great pals, we're really close, so it was lovely to have her back in work.

"She's a really sought-after member of the party - she fits in great, everyone loves her - so it was really nice for us to do a bit of work together again. It was really nice having her back."

Read more:

• EastEnders airs further consequences for evil Dean Wicks in early BBC iPlayer release
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• EastEnders announces sexual assault storyline for Yolande Trueman with flashback scenes
• EastEnders' Angela Wynter reveals importance of Yolande's dark new story
• EastEnders airs heartbreaking death in early iPlayer release

EastEnders normally airs Monday to Thursday on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

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